012-i. Advisory review: EIA for Tout Lui Faut oil refinery - Surinam

The NCEA issued an advisory review of the EIA for the oil refinery to be constructed at Tout Lui Faut. Based on its recommendations for improvement, supplementary information was submitted. In its review of this supplementary information, the NCEA concluded that the total body of information was now sufficient to allow for environmental considerations in decision-making.

Advisory reports and other documents

Significant details

The Suriname State Oil Company intended to construct an oil refinery at Tout Lui Faut, to process locally produced crude oil. An EIA had to be prepared for this project. The Dutch government asked the NCEA to review the EIA report. During its visit to Suriname, the NCEA noticed that more information about the design of the refinery and environmental issues were available than the information provided in the EIA report. Therefore it decided to incorporate this information in its review.

In its advisory report, the NCEA concluded first of all that the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the EIA were not adequate and could not serve as a review framework. Therefore the NCEA constructed its own review framework, based on international guidelines and Suriname standards. In its review, based on this framework, the NCEA makes a number of recommendations, a.o.:

The possibility to establish a buffer zone should be investigated, in order to avoid settling of new dwellings within 500 metres from the facilities;

An alternative should be elaborated in which existing storage tanks are replaced by new ones;

Information should be provided on waste and wastewater streams;

Concrete information should be provided on expected emissions and concentrations from heaters, boiler and flare;

Concrete information should be given on the use of low-noise equipment and the noise level in the residential area;

Information should be provided on the environmental care system, maintenance system and equipment inspection procedures.

In this review, the NCEA asked for a supplement to the EIA report in which these issues would be repaired. This supplement was indeed prepared, and also submitted to the NCEA for review. The overall conclusion concerning the EIA report including supplements was that it is sufficient and in general correct, and thereby allows for consideration of environmental aspects in decision-making. Some recommendations based on the review of this additional information are:

To prepare a summary of the EIA report in order to make it available for interested parties;

To improve the communication with inhabitants of the surrounding area;

To incorporate the presented environmental measures/standards as conditions in the license.